The Writer's Blog

Siddharta & Kumble reveal Bengalore's new Green jersey Royal Challengers Bangalore, the Indian Premier League team at the forefront of creating environmental awareness, on Wednesday marked another step in its ongoing Green Initiative by unveiling a special jersey. Sidhartha Mallya, Director, Royal Challengers Sports Pvt. Ltd unveiled the "Green Jersey" at a special launch event in Bangalore. The Royal Challengers will don the Green jersey in the home match against the Kochi Tuskers in the match to be played on May 8, 2011 as a symbol of the team's commitment to the Green Initiative. This special jersey is distinct from RCB's traditional red and gold coloured team attire. This special jersey will be signed by the Royal Challengers team and auctioned and the proceeds will go towards the team's Green Initiative. The entire RCB team will take the Green Pledge towards a greener lifestyle with more than 40,000 fans at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Anil

Finally the fourth season of IPL begins today. IPL 2011 kicks off with 2 new teams and 7 revamped teams all shuffled up and one champion defending the title. Here's my standings of IPL teams competing this season, you can check out the SWOT analysis of all the IPL teams here . This is just my analysis. We all have to watch out how it turns out, because no one can predict a team's performance. Although in my analysis, Delhi Daredevils, Deccan Chargers & Kochi Tuskers Kerala are the underdogs and will have a point to prove to the big guns. Chennai Superkings, Mumbai Indians & Kolkata Knightriders are the strongest sides on paper. I would like to know how you place the teams. Please leave your comments below. Chennai Superkings – 8.75 Mumbai Indians – 8.65 Kolkata Knight Riders – 8.5 Royal Challengers Bengaluru – 8.43 Pune Warriors India – 8.23 Rajasthan Royals – 8.23 Kings XI Punjab – 8.15 Kochi Tuskers Kerala – 8.13 Deccan Chargers – 7.43 Delhi Daredevils – 7

Royal Challengers Bengaluru   Captain – D Vettori          Coach – R Jennings Ground ·          Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru Squad Daniel Vettori(Captain), Virat Kohli, Mohammed Kaif, Tilkaratane Dilshan, Zaheer Khan, Ab De Villers, Saurabh Tiwary, Dirk Nannes, Cheteshwara Pujara, Charl Langeveldt, Luke Pomersbach, Abhimanyu Mithun, Johan van der Wath, Nuwan Pradeep, Rilee Rossouw, Jonathan Vandiar, Mayank Aggarwal, KB Karthik, Asad Pathan, Raju Bhatkal, CM Gautam(wk), Sreenath Aravind, Bharat BN, Ryan Ninan. Abrar Kazi Best Performance in IPL – Runners Up 2009, Third Position 2010 Strengths ·          Explosive campaigners in Dilshan, Saurab Tiwary, Virat Kohli, Vandiar & De Villiers ·          Strong Bowling lineup with Zaheer Khan, Nannes, Langeveldt,Vettori & Mithun ·          Very dependable Indian players Weakness ·          Very defensive Captain in Vettori compared to Kumble ·          No finishers ·          Spin department is vacant if Vettori is injured ·  

Rajasthan Royals Captain – S Warne          Coach – S Warne Ground ·          Sawai Maan Singh Stadium, Jaipur ·          Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad Squad Shane Warne (Captain), Johan Botha, Paul Collingwood, Rahul Dravid ,Pankaj Singh, Shaun Tait, Ross Taylor, Shane Watson, Aakash Chopra, Ajinkya Rahane, Ashok Menaria, Faiz Fazal, Swapnil Asnodkar, Dinesh Salunke, Amit Paunikar, Jacob Oram, Stuart Binny, Sumit Narwal, Ankeet Chavan,  Pinal Shah, Dishant Yagnik, Abhishek Raut, Sidharth Trivedi, Nayan Doshi, Amit Singh, Aditya Dole, Samad Fallah, Deepkak Chahar Best Performance in IPL – Champions 2009, Semi finalists 2010 Strengths ·          Warne did it in 2008 with an underrated team, he can do it again ·          Explosive buys in Ross Taylor, Watson & Oram ·          Shaun Tait will lead the attack with the wonder boy Deepak Chahar ·          Dravid and Botha will lend experience to the team ·          Rahane, Chahar and Asnodkar players to watch out for Weakness ·  

Pune Warriors India Captain – Y Singh             Coach – G Marsh Ground ·          Pune International Cricket Center, Pune Squad Yuvraj Singh (Captain), Manish Pandey, Dheeraj Jadhav, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, Callum Ferguson, Eklavya Dwivedi, Harshad Khadiwale, Mitchell Marsh, Graeme Smith, Mohnish Mishra, Harpreet Singh, Angelo Mathews, Jesse Ryder, Alfonso Thomas, Shrikant Wagh, Rahul Sharma, Mithun Minhas, Ganesh Gaikwad, Shrikant Mundhe, Time Paine (wk), Robin Uthappa, Ashish Nehra, Murali Kartik, Jerome Taylor, Wayne Parnell, Nathan McCullum, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Imtiyaz Ahmed, Kamran Khan, Sachin Rana, Mohammad Kaif Best Performance in IPL – New Entrants Strengths ·          Yuvraj Singh is totally high after his awesome form at the world cup, he will be out there to prove a point to his Punjabi teammates ·          Uthappa factor- The bomb blasting keeper batsman from Bengaluru will keep it ticking at a high rate with another Benguluru player, Manish Pandey ·          Graeme

Mumbai Indians Captain – S Tendulkar     Coach – R Singh Ground ·          Braborne Stadium, Mumbai ·          DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai Squad Sachin Tendulkar (Captain), Tirumalasetti Suman, Aiden Blizzard, SK Yadav, Rohit Sharma, Sarul Kanwar, Moises Henriques, James Franklin, Rajagopal Satish, Kieron Pollard, Andrew Symonds, Aditya Tare, Davy Jacobs, Ambati Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, Abu Nachim, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga, Munaf Patel, Dhaval Kulkarni, Pawan Suyal, Ali Murtaza, Yuzvendra Chahal Best Performance in IPL – Runners Up 2010 Strengths ·          The presence of the little master Sachin Tendulkar & a huge fan base ·          An explosive middle consisting of Symonds & Pollard ·          Rohit Sharma, Satish and Rayudu provide depth in the batting ·          Malinga leads an unimaginable bowling attack with Munaf, Harbhajan, Murtaza, Fernando & Franklin ·          Bankable domestic players Weakness ·          Too much expectation ·          If an